Sunday, December 09, 2007

You may not be able to ignore the packaged angst of public media; but you can apply your thoughts only to those subjects where you can make a difference.

There are three questions to ask yourself as you consider your thoughts.

Relevancy: Is what you are considering in any way relevant to where you want to go and what you want to do. If not it is just consuming time and delaying your chance to bring about a significant advancement.

Importance: There may be something to do, it may even have some value. But will it make powerful accomplishments possible, or just add a pebble to a small stack of insignificance? Your life has great value, if you will direct it toward possibilities of major consequence.

Actionable: It may be important, but can you see any way at this time, with tools currently available, you can change things for the better? Much of what is reported is so far away from our influence that we might as well dream fantasy as spend time considering it.

I am reminded of the couple where the man bragged that he made all the important decisions in his family - such as should the US try to land on Mars, or should the UN be disbanded. His spouse made the unimportant ones, what is for dinner, where the kids will go to school, if they should move to a different country.

What is important to you? If it is easier for you to remember the negative:

Ignore everything that is irrelevant, unimportant, or un-actionable.

If it fails any of those tests there is only one reason to continue - perhaps your futile efforts will inspire someone else to do better.